She strives for self-reliance

Rinku Sarkar- daughter of a fish vendor in Mirpara, Liluah, set an example for independent-minded women when she started her small-scale unit Rinku Enterprises in her very own home, earlier this year, with the help of Webcon (West Bengal Consultancy Organisation).

In a well-attended inaugural program, the local councillors of Ward numbers 22 and 24 of Bally, lauded the efforts of this gritty young girl, who is trying to carve a niche for herself . Her small-scale unit in Howrah deals with repairing and maintenance of refrigerators, air coolers and air conditioners. Outstanding among the successful trainees of The Don Bosco Self Employment Research Institute , Rinku opted for a trade generally associated with men.

This institute has been rendering a yeoman's service to the local residents for the past few years, by imparting non-formal training with entrepreneurship in various market-oriented trades like the maintenance and repairing of air-conditioners and refrigerators, wool-knitting, manufacture of jute products, tailoring, mushroom cultivation, welding and house wiring. No course fee is charged and residential facilities are available as well.

Quite interestingly, more than 65 percent of the institute's trainees are girls, who are often equally, if not more industrious, enterprising, and eager-to-learn than their male counterparts.

Rinku is one among the 250 people who were trained in the institute, and are all self-employed today. She is a school dropout, barely out of her teen and one could lose her in a crowd. But, what sets her apart from others is her never-say-die attitude, her will to succeed and a strong grit and determination to make it big. Today, she is very close to achieving the kind of success and self-dependence, most people can only dream of.

She, however, candidly confessed that she would have been just another school drop-out but for the support and the guidance of Brother T.V. Mathew, the technical director, Don Bosco Self Employment Research Institute, Mirpara, Liluah. Also, he encouraged her to qualify for the Madhyamik, she adds.